Ray Ellis born 28 July 1923

Ray Ellis (July 28, 1923 – October 27, 2008) was an American record producer, arranger and conductor. During a career that spanned almost 65 years, the Philadelphia native also arranged for acts including Tony Bennett, Doris Day, the Drifters, Connie Francis, Judy Garland and Ray Price.

Raymond Spencer Ellis was born in Philadelphia. He took saxophone lessons as a teenager and played in dance bands in the Northeast before going into the Army in 1943. He found his way into the band of the 1st Armored Division; he played dances and tried his hand at arranging. After the war, he played saxophone, clarinet and flute for Paul Whiteman’s band and tenor sax in the Gene Krupa Band. He also performed on live TV with jazz combos on WCAU in Philadelphia. His big break came in 1955 when a friend introduced him to producer Mitch Miller of  Columbia Records and under the famed bandleader's guidance, Ellis arranged a string of top 10 records for acts including the Four Lads, Mathis, Bennett, Darin and Chris Connor.

In 1958, he gained notice as the arranger for Billie Holiday’s last two albums, including “Lady in Satin,” which received mixed critical notice. The album seemed to gain greater acceptance over the years and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

With Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, Ellis arranged R&B classics for the Drifters ("Under the Boardwalk"), Brook Benton ("There Goes My Baby"), Ben E. King ("Spanish Harlem") and Etta James ("C.C. Rider").  Ellis became A&R director at MGM Records in 1959, creating hits for Connie Francis ("Where the Boys Are"), Frankie Laine and Clyde McPhatter ("Lover's Question"). Later, he worked with such artists as Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Newley, Michelle Lee, Liza Minnelli and Maurice Chevalier.

                              

Ellis' work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. In the early 1960s, Ellis had a contract to produce his own easy listening record albums with RCA Victor, MGM, and Columbia, the most popular probably being Ellis in Wonderland. His television credits include theme music for NBC 
News At Sunrise with Connie Chung and the background and incidental music for the original Spider-Man cartoons.

Holiday & Ellis

In 1970, he produced Emmylou Harris' debut LP Gliding Bird. Ellis also composed two extended themes for The Today Show, the first in 1971. It was used as the Friday closing theme (and eventually the show's full-time theme) until the end of the decade. However, in Herald Square Music v. Living Music, the District Court of the Southern District of New York "found the instrumental arrangement and harmonization of defendant's melody to be substantially similar to that of 'Day by Day,'" a Stephen Schwartz 
song from the musical Godspell. As a result, Ellis composed a second Today Show theme based on the trademark NBC 

chimes. That theme was the NBC show's signature from 1978 to 1985 and has appeared irregularly on the morning program ever since.

Using many different pseudonyms Ellis and Norm Prescott composed nearly all of the background music for cartoon studio Filmation from 1968 to 1982, according to DVD booklets for Ark II, Space Academy, and Jason of Star Command. Ellis also composed the music for 1968's Fantastic Voyage, also on some of Filmation's early '70s output and its feature films and 1969's The Hardy Boys. On 1978's Fabulous 
Funnies, Ellis was credited as "Mark Jeffrey". However, Ray Ellis was credited with his real name for background music to The Archie Show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Also the animated Star Trek series in the early 1970's

Ellis, who resided in Los Angeles, also composed the music for the 1980s US edition of Sale of the Century theme, along with Hot Streak, Scrabble, Scattergories and Time Machine with his son Marc Ellis, that includes the Jack Grimsley's score from 1980 and the famed Reg Grundy Productions fanfare at the end of each broadcast; he also composed the theme from the short-lived US version of Catch Phrase.

Before his retirement Ellis worked on projects with Adam Sandler, Barry Manilow and Bette Midler. After which he was involved in fundraising efforts for the Ojai Music Festival. Ellis died at the age of 85 of complications from melanoma on October 27, 2008, at an assisted-living facility in Encino, California.

(Edited from Wikipedia, Hollywood Reporter & Los Angeles Times)